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No New Apple TV Coming Next Week, But Apple Will Upgrade Software

i own one and i hardly use it. its slow and a total waste of money and plastic. I own a Tivo Roamio and its amazing, it has netflix and amazon. The new version loads Netflix in 3 seconds! and I ocassionally download music and not movies.
 
najkee said:
I think Apple should open up the ATV for the app store... developers would help make that a revolutionary feature, like it was with the iPhone...
Click to expand...

It won't happen. For 2 reasons:

1) Apple has only done the Apple TV as a secondary thing, and also to gain experience with TV providers, to help them R&D the streaming TV market.

2) If they do that, then it would gouge into their upcoming plans to overtake the TV business by introducing the full iHDTV, where you get Apple's TV and completely eliminates the need for cable/sat...direct competition to those providers. But, it will be internet based, no cable/sat needed. ...which may include iOS apps/app store, but, probably not at first, like the iPhone didn't at first.

Apple TV might not see an update. If Apple can go forward with what I described in 2), in 2014, then I see no reason to update the Apple TV box. If they push it out to 2015, then, maybe a minor update, mainly to add the new wifi (a/c?).
 
If they aren't going to update the hardware I think they really need to drop the (official) price. By quite a lot.
 
My ATV software update wish list:

1. Remove "Computers" for downloaded/owned content and needing to access the store for purchased (but not downloaded) content. Just have one of the top buttons say "My media" which contains "My movies", "My TV shows", "My photos", and "My music" - whether you have it stored locally or in the cloud doesn't matter to me when it comes time to watch - I just want to see all my stuff in a single place.

2. For TV series, stop listing each season on a separate line - why can't we have "Monk" like in iTunes which states which season(s) you have - click on that and then the subfolder contains each season individually.

3. For movies that have a series in them, have a single icon for the movie, and then a sub-folder for each movie in the series.

I know I'm being terribly naive, but it just doesn't seem like it would be that hard to do...and far more "elegant" and Steve-like.

My $0.02
 
I just want more TV content, like all the network apps on the AppStore.

It's so frustrating to have bought a product and have to wait an excruciatingly long time for just one software update with more channels.
 
I think the hardware and software should be updated for less laggy Airplay mirroring from iOS devices, Macs and PCs. iOS 7 will introduce official joypad support for iPhones and if mirroring was lag-free then Apple TV would essentially be a games console with the largest software library of not just iOS games but also Mac and PC titles.
 
benji888 said:
Since you have both, I have neither, please tell me...well...roomies just got a Roku, which has lots of channels, but, the quality of some of the stuff on there is like watching old 240 or 360p youtube vids, this looks worse on HDTV.

So, my question is, does the Apple TV have higher quality video on the channels it does have?
Click to expand...

I have both. Here's what I think.

1. Roku 3 is more powerful - it plays high bitrate (40 mbps) BluRay rips from Plex or USB with no issues and passes DTS audio. Pretty awesome.
2. Roku 3 has more content channels. TWC TV, Amazon Instant Video, and HBO GO are ones that I use regularly.
3. Apple TV 3 seems to be pulling better quality streams from HBO GO than the Roku 3, but there is no real objective way to know for sure (that I know of).
4. Apple TV 3 has a more appealing and consistent interface. Not all Roku apps have HD interfaces and some are fugly. This is pretty subjective, but Apple UX design is second to none.
5. IMHO, Apple TV 3 is far more likely to have some watershed moment in the (hopefully near) future that makes it truly awesome and/or revolutionary.
 
najkee said:
I think Apple should open up the ATV for the app store... developers would help make that a revolutionary feature, like it was with the iPhone...
Click to expand...

Please just do this already. I will buy one. It will be awesome!
 
massprince said:
i own one and i hardly use it. its slow and a total waste of money and plastic. I own a Tivo Roamio and its amazing, it has netflix and amazon. The new version loads Netflix in 3 seconds! and I ocassionally download music and not movies.
Click to expand...

I also have a TiVo, but I find myself using HBO GO on the Apple TV quite a bit due to convenience. If a software update replicates the HBO GO experience with even more channels, it will become very useful to me. I've never liked the TiVo interface and DVR recordings always seem sloppy to me since they don't start and stop exactly at the beginning and end of a program.

Also, I'm surprised you find it slow - mine has always been very responsive. UI is fast to load and streaming is flawless over my 20 mbps Internet (TWC Turbo).
 
Release an Apple TV app store (with XBMC, Plex etc). You could even charge double for the Apple TV and people would still buy it.
 
landroverz7 said:
And here I was hoping Apple will release an apple TV 4 with:
A6 or A7 dual core
gigabit ethernet port
802.11ac
16GB inbuilt ssd for new app store
usb 3.0 port for external hdd
Click to expand...

All of this (above) I want

All of this (below) is what I expect

A6
802.11ac only I would guess
8GB
and no USB 3 port what so ever
 
whsbuss said:
Returned my roku 3 as soon as I plugged it in. Not only is the Netflix interface bad but the picture quality is as well. Side by side with my atv3 is miles apart.
Click to expand...

The picture quality is excellent. If you would have used it more than 2 minutes you would have noticed that Netflix starts out with bad quality and within a few moments clears up. The reason is so the show can start quickly before adapting to your connection quality.

I own both but we tend to use Roku most. We've found it to be the most reliable and it has vastly more content
 
Streaming devices have become stale. Whether Roku, Google or Apple TV. Until the grip by cable tv can be be broken, nothing will change. Until the consumer can stream whatever network they want, and pay for what they want, there is very little these streaming devices can improve on other than cosmetic gui changes.
 
jettredmont said:
Not on features or hardware capabilities. The Roku competes on content. That's where Apple needs to up its game.

No new hardware needed, unless Apple's bringing out some new feature which requires said hardware (but I haven't heard any rumors indicating anything like that).

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Absolutely. AppleTV needs to burst the cell walls of all those little apps.

Imagine being able to search for something and find the four services where you can see it (the ones you subscribe to, followed by those you can pay one-time rental/buy fees on), linking directly into that service to watch said program with no middle steps.

Imagine being able to see "what's popular" amongst all the content services you subscribe to, on a regional level (ie, I probably don't care what is popular in Japan, but I do care about what people in Northern California are watching).

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Tip I learned recently on another ATV board here: go into parental controls, and disable any of the icons you don't want to see on the screen anymore.
Click to expand...

Content is(almost)everything.I have both and wouldn't part with either one.
 
That ability to play your iTunes-purchased TV shows and movies on a friend's Apple TV sounds great. Too bad none of my friends have an Apple TV. :rolleyes:
 
AppleMark said:
I have a few ATV's myself. Software update is ok, only if they are not intent on force feeding App's and content I do not want and cannot remove from my menu's.
Click to expand...

I heard if you use parental controls you can take icons off your menu that you don't want.
 
OriginalMacRat said:
Total Roku sales: 5 million units

Total AppleTV sales: 10 million units.

http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/10/ro...-u-s-has-streamed-8b-videos-and-music-tracks/
Click to expand...

Good article.Some interesting points:
HALF the Roku total was from the previous 16 months.Since it was introduced in 2008,that's a healthy acceleration.

Roku's figures are US only,Apple's are global.

Considering Apple's name recognition and ecosystem,and the fact that most people would say"What's a Roku",I'd say they are serious competition,but not huge.As I said,I have both.Their strengths and weaknesses compliment each other well.Both are great devices.
 
nosnhojm said:
Not a single thing on your list would affect ATV performance whatsoever.

  • A6/A7 would allow you to...move your selector faster?
  • gigabit ethernet / 802.11ac would improve...nothing. Your broadband internet is the bottle neck (at roughly 5-50 Mbps)
  • more flash storage would...let you buffer more video in case your internet suddenly dies?
  • usb 3.0 would let you...do nothing that AirPlay can't already do.
Click to expand...

you are completely disregarding that some people use ATV to stream local content. I do all the time and the things mentioned above would definitely help with that. I have ATV3 and it has serious buffering issues with ripped blu rays (I have a good number). more flash storage would certainly help there. I suspect 802.11ac should speed up local streaming too. not sure about gigabit ethernet - that might really be unnecessary. I don't use ethernet with my ATV anyway because it has (a completely retarded IMO) limitation that with ethernet connection active you can not stream over WiFi and I want to be able to stream from different sources.
 
benji888 said:
Since you have both, I have neither, please tell me...well...roomies just got a Roku, which has lots of channels, but, the quality of some of the stuff on there is like watching old 240 or 360p youtube vids, this looks worse on HDTV.

So, my question is, does the Apple TV have higher quality video on the channels it does have?
Click to expand...

They look the same on my TV(the good quality programming).Lots of the Roku channels are just old public domain stuff so quality is poor.If they have a Roku get an Apple TV and you'll have everything covered.Airplay,Youtube,Amazon Prime,and all the rest is gravy.Most of the "channels"recently added to the Atv are not for me anyway,and I do enjoy an occasional old cheesy movie,especially scifi:)
 
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